■ Chip Makers
Chartered to expand
Chartered Semiconductor, the world's third largest chip foundry, said on Friday it will spend US$400 million this year on its new 12-inch wafer fabrication plant. Chartered will spend another US$700 million to US$800 million to ramp up capacity at the same plant, Fab 7, next year, Chief Executive Officer Chia Song Hwee said. The Singapore company has so far spent US$290 million on the plant -- estimated to cost US$3 billion when completed -- which will help Chartered to mass produce next-generation chips. Computer chips are etched onto the wafers of silicon. Thinner lines are etched on the 300mm wafers than the previous standard 200mm wafers, allowing the chips to run faster and use less electricity.
■ Trade
Cross-strait trade up 22.7%
Two-way trade between Taiwan and China amounted to US$3.948 billion in January, an increase of 22.7 percent over that of the previous year, according to statistics released Friday by the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The statistics show that Taiwan's exports and imports to and from China registered US$2.9 billion and US$1.048 billion in January, respectively, up 22.7 percent and 19.3 percent year-on-year.
■ Automobiles
Japanese production up
Production of cars, trucks and buses in Japan rose last month for the first time in four months on the back of new-model launches, an industry group said Friday. Production increased 1.3 percent on year to 913,561 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association said. Domestic vehicle demand last month totaled 535,240 units, up 1.8 percent from the same month a year earlier. But Japan's exports of cars, trucks and buses fell 1.0 percent last month from the same month last year to 390,012 vehicles, the association said. The decline came as falls in exports to the US and the EU offset shipment growth to Asia. Exports fell 2.2 percent in January.
■ Airlines
Singapore Air adds routes
Singapore Airlines will begin flying to China's eastern city of Nanjing three times a week, the carrier announced Friday. Nanjing will be the airline's fifth destination on the mainland with services starting today, an airline statement said. The carrier already flies to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Increasing numbers of Chinese tourists are making Singapore a holiday destination, with Chinese visitors a leading contributor to the city-state's monthly arrival totals. Singapore Airlines was forced to drastically cut back flights last year because of a regional travel slump brought on by an outbreak of SARS, but passenger numbers have rebounded strongly over the past few months.
■ Automobiles
Ssangyong talks collapse
China National Bluestar Corp has denied that talks on its takeover of South Korea's troubled Ssangyong Motor Company have collapsed, state press reported Friday. "It is not the time to say that we have finally abandoned the acquisition, although we disagree with Ssangyong on a number of issues," the China Daily quoted Bluestar spokeswoman Li Anqing as saying. Creditors of Ssangyong agreed earlier this week to strip Bluestar of its preferred bidder status in the sale of South Korea's fourth largest automaker, which specialises in sports utility vehicles and large sedans.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”